Prospectus' Carroll shoulders media burden about Prior injury

Will Carroll had every right to gloat after he learned Cubs right-hander Mark Prior had been shut down because of shoulder soreness.

Carroll, you will recall, wrote last month on Baseball Prospectus' Web site that reliable sources had told him Prior was "having shoulder problems."

The Cubs' brass carved that report to pieces, with manager Dusty Baker saying, "You can't believe a report unless it comes from us. If it doesn't come from us, it doesn't count."

The report came to be true. But Carroll is not about to throw himself a party.

"When I first heard [about Prior], I had that initial feeling of, `Hey, I was right,'" Carroll recalled Wednesday. "And then it was, `Oh, [no], I don't want that.' Lots of radio stations have called and asked me to go on and gloat. I'm not going to do that. I didn't want to be right about this."

Carroll is not only a Cubs fan, he likes and respects Prior, whom he interviewed for a book about pitchers' injuries.

"I'm hoping this is not a torn rotator cuff or labrum," Carroll said of Prior's latest woe. "We'll see."

After the Cubs vehemently denied his report, Carroll said he spoke to his source, whom he described last month as someone familiar with Prior's off-season regimen.